Donald Trump didn't want to meet Zelenskyy in US but this world leader convinced him

US President Donald Trump reportedly wanted to call off Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's US visit and even sent him a message in this regard. However, he changed his mind after French President Emmanuel Macron intervened on the Ukrainian President's behalf. 

Zelenskyy visit to the US was planned for Friday to sign a deal giving the US access to some of Ukraine’s natural resources wealth in exchange for its continued support. Trump himself had informed reporters about the visit. However, the US President was not enthusiastic about the meeting after a tense stand-off between the heads of the states over Trump's recent criticism of Zelensky, according to France-based BFMTV.

On receiving the message from the Trump administration, Zelenskyy then called Macron, who contacted Donald Trump, asking him to receive his counterpart, adding that he would vouch for him.

Finally, Donald Trump budged since he announced on Wednesday that he would receive the Ukrainian leader at the White House. The duo is expected to finalise a framework agreement on the exploitation of minerals. 

Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that a framework of an economic deal had been reached, which will be signed if they can reach an agreement during discussions in Washington on Friday. "The framework is a preliminary step toward a comprehensive package that will be subject to ratification by the Ukrainian parliament," Zelenskyy said.

Trump, however, was noncommittal about any coming American security guarantees. I'm not going to make security guarantees ... very much, Trump said. "We're going to have Europe do that."

He said a US presence working on mineral extraction would amount to "automatic security because nobody's going to be messing around with our people when we're there." 

However, CNN reported that many officials were apprehensive about the "trillion-dollar deal" as there’s little actual evidence of great rare earth and other mineral wealth in Ukraine. It is also unclear as to how much of what exists could be exploited in the eastern war-torn part of the country.

“We’ll be digging, dig, digging,” Trump told reporters on the eve of Zelensky’s visit. “The American taxpayers will now effectively be reimbursed for the money and hundreds of billions of dollars poured into helping Ukraine defend itself.” 

However, there is no "modern assessment" of the reserve and whatever information available now is based on the decades-old Soviet-era mapping. Ukraine has no proven reserves of rare earth minerals, or processing facilities, according to the US Geological Survey.

Though Ukraine has vast deposits of other minerals like graphite, lithium and titanium, which the US considers critical minerals, that too isn't much. "If we zoom out, on a global scale it’s not a ton," said Jack Conness, a senior analyst at Energy Innovation. "Generally speaking, it’s not to say these resources don’t exist but we know very little about what there is to offer."